Memphis automobile dealers are warning people across the Mid-South of a full-blown crisis at the Shelby County Clerk’s Office. There’s a backlog of more than 10,000 tag applications from local dealers and the president of the Greater Memphis Automobile Dealers Association is placing the blame on County Clerk Wanda Halbert.
“Wanda Halbert is a nice lady, but she is not qualified to run this office,” GMADA president Kent Ritchey said on The Mighty 990 KWAM. “We have operated with this office for the last 40 or 50 years and it has been a model of efficiency, whether it was a Democrat at the office or Republican had the office, it’s not a partisan job. There are over 10,000 tag applications from automobile dealers in Shelby County alone, plus thousands more from individuals who are replacing their tag on their two year anniversary. So it is a debacle the likes of which we’ve never seen in any kind of county office.”Ritchey is also president of Landers Auto Group.
“There are more tag applications going down there every day than we are picking up. July and August are two of the largest automobile sales months of the year. So it’s not going to get better. It’s going to get worse. That’s why we asked the state to come in,” he said.
Following is a rush transcript of Ritchey’s interview with KWAM news anchor Ben Deeter. Listen to the full interview above.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FREE KWAM NEWS RADIO APP – STAY UP TO DATE ON NEWS ACROSS THE MID-SOUTH.DEETER: [00:00:03] Welcome to our number three here on Wake Up Memphis. So glad you are joining us. And if you are just joining us, you can always find us on KWAMRADIO.COM where we stream there all morning long and actually all day long where you can hear your favorite programs. You can also download the mighty 990 app and hear all of your favorite programs. Crystal clear question Have you gotten your car tags yet? A lot of people are still waiting for those car tags to come in. Not just drivers, though. Dealers, automobile dealers still waiting for a backlog that is causing so many problems across the greater Memphis area. And here to join in talk about this debacle is Kent Ritchie. He’s the president of the Greater Memphis Automobile Dealers Association and Landers Auto Group president. Good morning. How are you?
RITCHEY: [00:00:51] Hey, good morning, Ben. Glad to be on. And wow, third hour. You were full of energy today for a.
DEETER: [00:00:57] It’s the energy drinks. They’ll they’ll keep you awake when you’re not very much awake. All right. Tell us right now what you’re dealing with on your and we’ve detailed this on our program, how just the the chaos unfolding is really affecting and impacting people like you and groups like the one you organize in operate. How many tag applications have you guys been waiting on and for how long? What’s going on?RITCHEY: [00:01:24] We are in an unprecedented crisis at the county clerk’s office. Wanda Halbert is a nice lady, but she is not qualified to run this office. We have operated with this office for the last 40 or 50 years and it has been a model of efficiency, whether it was a Democrat at the office or Republican had the office, it’s not a partisan job. There are over 10,000 tag applications from automobile dealers in Shelby County alone, plus thousands more from individuals who are replacing their tag on their two year anniversary. So it is a debacle the likes of which we’ve never seen in any kind of county office.
DEETER: [00:02:10] A backlog of over 10,000 tag applications from dealers. Now, are you hearing anything from the clerk or her office? How has the response been from leaders here?
RITCHEY: [00:02:24] We talk to Ms. Halbert every day or one of her clerks or deputy clerks. So the situation is not getting better. It’s getting worse. Now the Whitehaven office, is closed due to either air conditioning problems or staffing problems. And they’re taking appointments only. And that’s a that’s a major office of automobile dealers are or textile and tag agents for the state of Tennessee and Shelby County. So you buy an automobile we go get your tag for you. You don’t have to wait in line. So when we say 10,000, we’re just all about the veto pack that we have, you know, plus the thousands more there. There are more tag applications going down there every day than we are picking up. July and August are two of the largest automobile sales months of the year. So it’s not going to get better. It’s going to get worse. That’s why we asked the state to come in.
DEETER: [00:03:19] So what’s the backlog having on drivers? What’s the real consequence of just this negligence right now happening in the clerk’s office? Do people just drive around without their proper tags? What are you hearing from those drivers right now that you need to get those tags? Do they just driving illegally?
RITCHEY: [00:03:39] We have added hours and we’ve added personnel in our offices to fill the calls and to be proactive and call customers, because we know that these tags are not coming back and we tell them on the front end that most likely not going to get the tag for 90 or 100 or 150 days. And yes, after that tag expires and we are prohibited by the state from issuing another one for that car they are driving with an expired license. Fortunately, the law enforcement officials in Shelby County and the suburbs have been lenient on that, but not always. If you go outside the county or you go outside the state, you do so at your own peril. All dealers get calls every day from customers who are getting pulled over for illegally expired tag. I had a customer on Thursday call from Georgia getting a ticket because he was on vacation in his new car. So it’s a mess.
DEETER: [00:04:38] Well, I’m sorry.
RITCHEY: [00:04:39] Sure the bigger the bigger problem here, there’s a financial problem of this that people have not even discussed. When you buy your car or your tag, you pay for it yourself. Not only that, you pay postage in order to have it sent if it’s mailed. And we collect those fees. Well, those applications – thousands of applications are sitting in the clerk’s office with cash checked untapped credit cards and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars that could go into the county and state coffers. That’s not even being collected at this point.
DEETER: [00:05:18] Oh, boy. And then you you refer to the banks. Talk about that where you’re saying these delays, these backlogs are actually keeping car titles from getting to the banks. And now bank dealers or banks are calling you guys asking where they are. Talk about that chaos now between the dealers and the banks in these car titles.
RITCHEY: [00:05:38] 80% of all the purchases in Shelby County are financed in some form or fashion. It could be a bank, a lender, a credit union or, you know, or some private lender. But in all those leaseholders, what their collateral the collateral is a title that shows that the lean has been perfected through the state of Tennessee system under bankruptcy laws. You have 20 days to protect that lean to prevent it from going into bankruptcy. Shelby County is the largest bankruptcy, one of the largest bankruptcy markets in the country. So dealers on their own are going out and paying an extra fee in order to get a temporary lean done. Until that permanently is in place, just to avoid the chance of bankruptcy, because until the lender, let’s just say it’s the Bank of America or Allied Finance or General Motors Financial or Ford Motor Credit. Until they get their title, the dealer is responsible for that loan. So they want that they want that collateral and they want it quick. And it’s a it’s a major legal implication. And it has cost dealers their vehicles because they got to the consumer, got to the bankruptcy court before the leading up to the got to the state.
DEETER: [00:07:04] Earlier you said I’ve been an automobile dealer in this city for over 35 years. And this is I’m you’ve never seen anything like this under whether it was a Democrat Clerk or a Republican Clerk, you’ve just never seen this. And that’s why you and a group of dealers across the greater Memphis area are calling for the state to come in. You said that earlier and clean up this mess now. Why do you think the state will be do you think the state will be able to intervene and what will they be able to do?
RITCHEY: [00:07:36] Well, I think they could, if they want to. The state has the manpower and the resources to fix this problem. And, you know, in short order, realistically, I don’t think that they will. All of we’ve asked the Shelby County Commission to step in and ask the state to do it. Interestingly, the officeholder, Miss Talbot, herself, agreed with us that we need state intervention and she’s all on record. And that’s been published in a lot of interviews and in the news. So I thought that was interesting. The the dealers and the public and the officeholder all agree. So we’ll find out. We have had some preliminary conversations with the state, but we’re not privy to their thinking or their actions. And the state revenue Department will be the one that will ultimately decide what to do. But more likely they would have to have county commission approval or, you know, response before they could do anything. So, yes, they could fix that. They want to whether they will or not. I don’t have any hope for that.
DEETER: [00:08:41] What would what would you tell the drivers who are, I’m sure, lighting up your phone lines every single day, just wanting their driver’s tags as quickly as possible? What would you tell those people that are starting to get impatient?
RITCHEY: [00:08:55] I’ll be real blunt. I will tell them on August they have a chance to make a change in that office, and I suggest that they do so. As we said this, this should be a nonpartisan race. We as dealers, we have never gotten involved in it before, but we’re going to get involved. And in this one, there is an individual, Jeff Jacobson, running for office who has worked in the clerk’s office for 22 years and the trustees office for five years. We think he has the expertize to handle it and together the personnel are. Another issue that’s happened then is that the all the experienced people who have been there forever who could solve this problem and keep this machine, I mean, they’ve all left. So they either took early retirement or they left or they went into another department. I don’t I’m not privy to the circumstances, but most of the experience people we’ve dealt with for years are are gone. Wow.
DEETER: [00:09:50] Fascinating. You heard Kent right there. Just endorse Jeff Jacobs. He is the opponent of Current Clark. Want to HALPER Ken is the president of the Greater Memphis Automobile Dealers Association and Lander on. Group president. Ken, thanks for joining us and breaking down this complex subject.
RITCHEY: [00:10:07] They feel the call. Thank you.
